The coronavirus outbreak exposed "shortcomings" in China's public healthcare system, a top health official admitted Saturday, saying that reforms are underway to improve the country's disease prevention and control mechanisms.

Five prominent labour activists have returned to their homes more than a year after they were arrested in coordinated raids in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to people close to them and a Hong Kong-based rights group.

The country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), is offering emergency loans to its customers amid coronavirus lockdown under its 'Emergency Loan Scheme'. SBI users can get up to Rs 5 lakh as loan within "45 minutes". The interest rate of the loan is at 10.5 per cent and EMIs will start after a period of six months.

Moody's Investors Service on Friday projected India's growth at zero per cent for the current fiscal and said the negative outlook on sovereign rating reflects increasing risks that GDP growth will remain significantly lower than in the past. The outlook also partly shows weaker policy effectiveness to address economic and institutional issues.

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Friday issued an unconditional apology to market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) for remarks made by its president and CEO Jennifer M Johnson that new regulatory guidelines led to shutting down of its six debt funds last month.

Air India crew members, widely hailed as corona warriors for operating rescue flights during the Covid pandemic, are reaching a “breaking point” with their salaries due for the last three months now. As they embark on the Vande Bharat Mission, AI pilots have told aviation minister H S Puri that only “lip service” is being done for the airline.

The deal will make Vista the largest shareholder of Jio after Facebook (9.99%) and parent RIL (86.54%). With this, RIL has raised a total of Rs 60,596 crore ($7.9 billion), boosting its efforts to pare debt.

The Vande Bharat Mission gained momentum, with two flights — one from Singapore and another from Riyadh — landing in Delhi and Kairapur airport in Kerala. The Operation Samudra Setu by the Indian Navy to evacuate Indians stranded abroad using naval ships kicked off from the Maldives on Friday. ​​The ship of the Eastern Naval Command is scheduled to reach Kochi by Sunday.

The finance ministry on Friday announced relief to those who have been facing difficulty with the status of their residency in India under Income Tax Act, 1961 due to suspension of international flights owing to the Covid-19, as they were required to prolong their stay. Several people expressed concerns that they will have to file tax returns as Indian residents.

Cognizant Technology Solutions’ revenue in the quarter ended March rose by 3.5% in constant currency, better than TCS and Wipro, but lower than HCL and Infosys. Revenue stood at $4.2 billion, including a $23 million headwind from their decision to exit content related services.

Three promoters of Ram Dev International, recently booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly cheating a consortium of six banks to the tune of Rs 411 crore, have already fled the country before the State Bank of India (SBI) reached the agency with the complaint, officials said on Saturday.

Anecdotally, it is often said that engineers tend to lean rightwards in their politics. In their new book, Engineers of Jihad, sociologist Diego Gambetta and political scientist Steffen Hertog back up that gut sense with data. They find that Islamist radicalism and other far-right movements are dominated by engineers, doctors and those with tech backgrounds, while left-wing movements draw people from the humanities and social sciences. They tell TOI why this may be the case

Owing to lack of adequate security and other infrastructural facilities, all the 72 liquor shops in the district remained closed on Monday despite the orders of the state government to open them from 10.00 am to 7.00 pm. Now, the administration will make adequate arrangements to open shops from Tuesday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expecting a windfall from the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights auction, which gets underway here on Monday with top companies from across the globe participating.

Days after Congress president Sonia Gandhi offered to pay for the travel of stranded migrant workers by trains to their homes, a Bihari NGO has offered to pay for the travel cost of 50 trains to carry Bihari migrants and students stranded in Mumbai.

A fire broke out in a pharmaceutical packaging factory in the Satpur industrial area on Thursday night. While there were no casualties, goods and articles, collectively amounting to over Rs 35 lakh, was gutted in the fire.

University students not in the final semester of graduation and postgraduation will be promoted automatically without having to appear for any exam, state higher and technical education minister Uday Samant announced on Friday.

A 51-year-old police constable who had tested positive for coronavirus died in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Saturday afternoon, an official said. This is the sixth death of a police personnel due to Covid-19 in the state, he said.

(This story originally appeared in PuneMirror on May 9, 2020)